How do you manage the introduction of new machinery to your food factory? How does your business approach crisis management? What about NPD? These are all challenging processes to manage, and many companies are struggling to find a good balance between an efficient and effective approach to managing them.

At Safefood 360° when we start developing new software modules we want to make sure we do it right. So we spend endless hours researching industry best practices, comparing existing software solutions and try to amalgamate all that information to something we think is the universally best possible way of tackling that issue. We don’t develop something unless we feel it will be the best possible solution out there.

For that reason, processes like “Management of Change“, “New Product Development” or “Crisis Management” have been previously left outside the software. We wanted to feel that we have nailed the right design. But all this will change in one fell swoop. We are excited to tell you that we are soon releasing a new module called “Business Process” and it will revolutionize your teams ability to standardize and manage key administrative processes.

What is Business Process module going to be all about?

The purpose of the new module is to give you a tool for designing a process that needs to be executed the same way time after time to ensure continuous high quality. You will be able to create a new program for every process you want to standardize. The program will then contain building blocks like process stages, responsibilities, tasks, due dates, documents, and approvals. You will be able to add any number of stages and tasks to your process. And since the new module is part of the Safefood 360° food safety management system it means that you can integrate your business processes with the rest of your FSMS.

Benefits of the new Business Process module

It goes without saying that the main benefit of a business process management module is that it allows you to standardize your workflows into simple processes that get repeated over and over again. The module will improve your efficiency and make sure that the quality of your work remains constant.

You will no longer forget to do important tasks. When you manage a process systematically, all related information is collected in one central place. You will also start thinking about your processes in a more systematic and planned way. The benefits are endless.

With Safefood 360° you can easily standardize business processes across your entire group which means that with a single click of a button you change how your entire global food company executes a certain process. You can have your key processes defined on the Group level and have them cascade down to your local sites automatically.

How to create a new process in the Business Process module?

Setting up a new process will be very straightforward. All you need to do is follow these easy instructions:

Design your process

Break your process down to stages and list them out

Assign responsibility for each stage

List necessary actions

Select who needs to approve a stage before proceeding to next

The new module will combine some basic but powerful features:

Any number of process stages

Responsibility assignment

Approval workflow containing the options for Review and Final Approval

Tasks

Due dates

Documents & Attachments

The new “Related Records” feature allows you to link your processes to any other records in the Safefood 360° software

By combining these elements in a clever way, you can distil your processes down to what they truly are all about and get unprecedented clarity on them. And imagine the benefits of being able to link your processes to other modules in Safefood 360°.

Examples of potential uses for the new module

Management of Change

Management of change is a big challenge for the food industry. It’s a big deal because any change in your business can have an impact on food safety and quality. So you need to consider your approach to change carefully.

For example, your employee suggests an investment in a WiFi network for the production area. Or the Production Manager suggests you install a new metal detector. Or the Quality Manager suggests you add another quality check to your production process. All of these changes will impact both your business and the quality of your product.

How do you manage change initiatives like this in a standardized way? How do you make sure that you conduct all necessary assessments and approvals before starting the initiative?

With the new module, you can easily set up programs that contain stages for “Risk Assessment”, “Business Case”, “Evaluation”, “Execution” and “Verification & Embedding”. You can add all the relevant tasks, collect information as attachments, and have the necessary approvals from the team members and upper management.

New Product Development

Developing a stage gate model for new product development is extremely easy with the software. In fact, if you look at our Tools page you will already find a great model for NPD that you could build in this new module in a matter of minutes.

Project Management

Setting up a new project plan in the Business Process module will be quick and allow you to track the status of even large projects.

Employee Onboarding

When new people join your quality management team, you want to make sure you have all bases covered. People need to learn new systems and processes; you need to include them in various databases, and you need to develop training plans among other tasks.

Creating a program that describes the process of employee onboarding will help make sure that every new employee is made familiar with the necessary systems and that you don’t cut corners.

Market entry assessment

Before you decide to enter a new market you need to do market research, study legislation, get permits, find distribution channels and many other tasks. You can now break the process of market entry down to subsequent stages and link your process to other processes such as NPD or risk assessment.

When is the new module available

The new module will be available at the end of September 2015, and it will be free for our customers on the Premium and Enterprise plans.

If you would like to give us feedback or ideas about the module before it’s released, please feel free to answer our survey. Click here to take survey.

Sounds like a plan – there are lots of opportunities for starting a new business in the area of food safety. One place we would highly recommend for you to join is the IFSQN.com forum and start networking. All the best!